Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-02-02
"JUB1LE OF SOULS"
A MEMORABLE DAY IN THE BROOK
LVN TABERNACLE.
WHO ARE THESE THAT FLY AS A
CLOUD, AND AS THE DOVES
TO THEIR WINDOWS?"

| i L
CLOUD, AND AS THE DOVES
TO THEIR WINDOWS"
SOULS TODAY GATHERING FOR
MEMBERSHIP.
THROUGH A SNOw-STORM TO SEE
ADYING GIRL.
THE YOUNG MAN WHO LEARNED
| HOW FAR 1T IS TO HE'LL.
SERMON SUNDAY, JANUARY 25RD, BY DIR.
TALMAGE.
| BROOKLYN, January 2S.-The Rev. T..
Dewitt Talmage's sermsn to-day was
preached at the reception of three hundred
and eight new members, making the com
municant membership of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle three thousand six hundred and
fifty. 1t was day memorable in the his
tory of this church. The reverend Doctors
| text was Isaiah tx, s: "Who are these chat
| Ry as a cloud, and as the doves to their
| windows?" He preached as follows:
When God would set fast beautiful
| thought Ae plants it in a tree; when He
would put it afloat He fashions it intoa fish;
when he would have it glide the air He
| m0ulds it into a bird There is to many of
us complete fascination in the structure
and habits of birds. The blaekbird float
| ing like flake of darkness through the
sunlight; the meadow lark with head of
fawn and throat of velvet and breast of gold; /;
the red lamings flying over the southern
swamps like sparks from the forge of the
| setting sun; the pelican, white and black,
morning and night tangled in its wings
They seem not more of earth than heaven,
ever vaciIlating between the two. No won
der that Audubon, with his gun, tramped
| through all the American forests in search
of new specimens. Biologists have spent
years in finding the track of a birds claw
in the new red sandstone. There is enough
of Gods architecture in a snipe's bill or a
grouse's foot to confound all the universi-
ties.
Musicians have with clefs and bars tried
to catch the sound of the nightingale and
the robin. Among the first things that a
child notices is swallow at the caves, and
grandfather goes out with handful of
ernmbs to feed the snow birds. The Bible
is full of pathological illusions. The birds
of the Bible are not dead and stuffed, like
those of a museum, but living birds with
f1uttering wings and plumage. "Beheld
the fowls of the air, says Christ. "Though
thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though
| thou set thy nest among the stars, thence
will bring thee down." exclaims Obadiah.
s'Gayest thou the goodly wings to the pea
coeks?" says Job. David describes his
desolation by saying: II am like pelican
Of the wilderness; am like an owl of the
desert; watch, and am as sparrow upon
the housetop." ''Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed time; and
| the turtle and the crane and the swallow
| observe the time of their coming; but my
people know not the Judgment of the Lord,
SO says jeremiah. And in the text Isaiah
looks ahead and sees the gathering of many
people unto Christ and the Church, and it
makes him think of flock of pigeons
alighting on their coep, and all at once try
| ing to get in at the window of the coop, and
| he cries out: "Who are these that fly as a
cloud, and as the doves to their windews?"
| This is one of the membership days of the
Brooklyn Tabernacle. On other Sundays
We drop the net; day we haul it in. On
other days we send out the invitations for a
kings party; to-day we sit at the banquet.
On other days we fight the battle, now we
claim victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Ye who have toiled and contribut
ed and prayed for the success of this insti-
tuition, take unto your souls the grand salts
faction of this hour. To you, 0 men and
women! is fulfilled the promise: "They that
sow in tears shall reap in joy" Wake up,
O Church of God! aud bring garlands and
music, and let US celebrate our "harvest
| heme."
Oh, this mercy of God! am told it is an
ocean. Then place on it four swift sail
| ing crafts, with compass and charts, and
choice rigging and skillful navigators, and
tell them to launch away and discover for
me the extent of this ocean. That craft
puts out in one direction and sails to the
north; this to the south; this to the east; this
to the west. They crewd ON all their can
vas and sail ten thousand years, and one
day come up the harbor of Heaven and
shout to them from the beach: "Have you
found the shore?' And they answer: mo
shore to Gods mereyp Swift angels, dis
patched from the throne, attempt to go
across it. For million years they fly and
| fly, but then come back and fold their wings
at the foot of the throne and cry: 'No
shore! No shore to Gods mercy!' Mercy!
Mercy! sing it. Ipreach it, pray it
Here find man bound hand and foot to
the devil, but with one stroke of the ham
mer of Gods truth the chains fall off and
he is free forever. Mercy Mercy! Mercy!
There is no depth it cannot fathom; there
is no height it cannot scale; there is no in
fnity it cannot compass.
When persons apply for membership into
any society; the question is asked, "Who
are they and where do they come from ?"
and as this multitude of peaple to-day pre-.
| H. al 20 ahoro 10 srlt
that we should ask, "Who are these that
come as doves to their windows 2" They
are captives whose chains have been bro
ken; they are soldiers who have enlisted for
IA thirty years. war. They are heirs of
| Heaven.
They come as doves to the windows, first
because they fly low. The eagle darts up,
as if to strike its beak into the sun. There
are birds that seem to d well under the caves
of heaven; you see them as little speeks
against the sky. SO far off that you cannot
guess the style of their plumage or the
shape of their bodies. They float SO far
away that if the hunters gun be discharged
at them they do not change their course
Net SO with the doves OR pigeons, they nev-
er take any high excursions. They fly
around your roof and alight on the fence
and seem to dislike great attitudes. So
these sous VINO come TO Christ and to his
Church to-day, fly low. They ask no great
things; they seek an humble place at the
feet of Christ. They are not ashamed to
be called beggars for mercy, they are will
ing to get down on their knees, and to crawl
undor the table, and to pick up the crumbs
of Gospel provision. There were days when
they were proud and punctilious and inex-
orable and puffsd up, but not now. The
highest throne of earth conld not tenn MT